aister

two seasons ago i got under a flight of geese with the 4 and i got 9, all the birds were the same, 70-80 yards up.

couldnt honestly say, he just laughs when i ask him how much he paid for it. not many nitro proofed double 4's around so i reckon it would be a fair bit, look at the price of some of the double 8's for sale :o

not sure, i will ask him the next time i see him and let you know

i had a great morning under the geese with my friend who is a big bore enthusiast. we arrived at our destination this morning at 7.15 and he armed me with his fred baker double 4 bore, he had his tolley double 8. we sat in between the big loch, where the geese were roosting, and a potato field and had the geese flight in over us. the geese behaved perfectly and left the roost at first light coming over us in small groups. not sure how many passed us somewhere between 300-400, at 9.30 the flight was done and we packed up. he had 5 geese and i also had 5, all greylags. thankfully we were not far from the vehicles as the 4 bore alone weighs 27lbs. the biggest surprise of the morning was when i fired a shell loaded with black powder, he had sneaked it in to the belt and never said, the flame and the smoke was impressive plus i got the goose. i missed a few but swinging the big gun is nothing like swinging a wee game gun, it takes a bit of getting used too. thoroughly enjoyed this morning and look forward to another outing in the x-mas holidays :good:

i will second that :good:

i have the DR85 but i prefer my buck gardner tall timber

wish i still had my L200, i miss her :sad1:

A-bolt in .223, ASE utra moderator and reloading kit :good:

i always take the breasts off the geese i shoot unless it is very easy to pluck (which is rare) and clean shot, maybe i am wrong but i always think the younger the bird the easier to pluck and the better to eat

great pics. beautiful birds, well done

i emailed the ring numbers and the all the other info to euring like scolopax said in post #2. the email was sent on the first of this month and they got back to me today.

this is a post i left a few weeks ago when someone was asking about snipe, this is how i do teal too. :good: i usually wait till i have a few snipe to make it worth while, i have seen cooking snipe, plover and woodcock together. what i do is put the birds breast down in a casserol dish, mix up a double strength chicken stock, enough to cover the birds and pour over them, add some coarse ground black pepper, and pour in a good splash of herb dipping oil (i get mine from the co-op, its just olive oil with herbs in).cover and put in the oven at maybe 180degC for 1 to 1 and a 1/2 half hours. its just something i made up (as you can probably tell) but it always comes good. it keeps everything nice and juicy. i cant remember exactly how long it takes but its just till the meat starts leaving the bone. teal works well done the same way too.

just got word back about the rung goose i shot last month. this is what was in the email- This bird was ringed by Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust as age 2nd year , sex male on 17-Mar-2010 at Straiddorn, Down OS Map reference IJ5066, co-ordinates 54deg 31min N 5deg 41min W. Colour marks right below knee: WN(9CC) am i right in thinking that this is in ireland?

its been a help to me as i use hodgdon powder in my .223

20 the other night with the .223 makes 8254

well done buddy, good eatin :good:

brilliant, i have always wanted to see dogs working like this :good:

the estwing was not butchered, it was adapted beautifuly for a specific purpose

i dont have much home made shooting gear other than my shooting sticks and my hide poles. heres a few pics of the hide poles, hope its of some help chrisboy. the hide poles are 15mm dowle with stainless pipe (with an inside diameter of 15mm) screwed on the end of each length with enough pipe sticking out for the next pole to slip in. each section is about 600mm long and the short ones are half that so i can get the hide to the right height. the bent wire is for holding the bottom of the scrim down in the wind and i have bungee cords for holding the top of the poles/net in the wind too. the bolt in the pic is for when the ground is hard i put the bolt inside the pipe on the first pole to go in the ground and use the hammer to hit it in, its just so i am not hitting the s/s pipe on the pole and knocking it on over the wooden dowle. the bag has been made from the leg of a boiler suit. hope this all makes sense, if this all seems complicated, its not i can put this up in the dark and it stands up to the wind briliantly and it all packs away nice and small and light, the longest bit is 600mm.

there job done

i have always meant to put glazing rubber on mine, in fact i will do that right now, back in a mo

i made my pair of sticks out of two bits of pitch pine 22mm x 15mm x 1660 and a gutter bolt set in flush and the end klinked so it cant work loose. works fine for me and it cost me all of nothing

ficchi subs :good:

well done buddy :good:

nice work mate, well done :good: